Saturday, March 30, 2013

There are few things I don't like about thrift stores. The primary annoyance is unattended children, but a close second is staples. Yep, staples. I don't know about your experience, but most of the thrift shops near me use staples to attach their price tags to clothing. To their credit, they usually try to staple them to the tag inside the collar. but if there isn't a tag, they go right through the fabric. Honestly, I can't really think of a better solution from their point of view. I'm sure staples are cheaper than price tag guns, and I do appreciate the savings that are passed on to the consumer, namely me. But still, staples. Grrr...

Let's look at an innocent victim of this pricing dilemma, shall we? I picked up this tee a while back for $1, I think. I love the indigo color and the low-cut back.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

As you may recall, about a year ago, when I vowed to lose weight, I also took a hiatus from garment knitting. Accessories, absolutely! But fitted sweaters, no. There's no point in spending weeks, or even months, creating something that soon won't fit.

Luckily, those days are behind me now. When I was within sight of my goal weight, I allowed myself to cast on a pullover (this lovely, cabled beauty by Norah Gaughan, to be precise!), and now it's finished!

I worked this up using some Patons Classic Merino Wool (#77732 That's Pink), which I scored on the cheap a few years ago when Michaels stores across the nation were selling yarn for $1 a skein to make room for their new yarn department. So with just over 5.5 skeins used, this, my friends, is a $5.53 sweater. Not bad, eh?

Finished, just in time to wear it once before it gets too hot. C'est la vie!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

To celebrate St Pat's in style, I decided to makeover this linen/cotton skirt I picked up at a clothes swap a few months back. The fabric and color are lovely, but the length is all wrong, and the beads and sequins were all falling off the waistband. Seriously, after trying it on for this before photo, I found at least a dozen beads/sequins on the floor.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

I have several pair of jeans that are perfectly good jeans, but just a size too large now. I've lived with them like this for a couple months now, thinking they weren't ill-fitting enough yet to make it worthwhile to ditch them and buy new ones (from a thrift store, of course - I don't really do new). However, recently it got to be too much. Why did I work my butt off (literally!) to lose all this weight just to hide it in baggy jeans? So I decided to do something about it! Here's what I'm talking about.

See? Not too big to wear, but certainly not as flattering as I'd like.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

I am so very proud to present to you my second non-self-published knitting pattern - Nori!

She's a lovely triangular shawl, knit from side-to-side, featuring a wavy lace pattern reminiscent of the algae paper used to wrap sushi. For the full pattern, check out the latest issue of Knitty magazine!